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Sep 22, 2012
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townsend. fran currently serves on the cia external advisory committee and recently visited libya with her employer, mcandrews forbes. also with us, arwa damon, who has been breaking news all week for us from benghazi. so fran, what have we learned about these two navy s.e.a.l.s? initially a former s.e.a.l.s, it was thought they were there to protect the ambassador. that's not the case. >> that's not the case, anderson. they are part of this protective security contractor force. these two contractors -- the contractors generally are recruited from elite special forces because of their training and experience. in the case of doherty, he had served in iraq and afghanistan. these were both men who understood very well the dangers, the trouble and how to respond to it appropriately, but they were not -- they were there but not with the ambassador's security detail. they coordinated and deconflicted with the ambassador's detail. they also coordinated with libyans. their presence was not a secret, bu
townsend. fran currently serves on the cia external advisory committee and recently visited libya with her employer, mcandrews forbes. also with us, arwa damon, who has been breaking news all week for us from benghazi. so fran, what have we learned about these two navy s.e.a.l.s? initially a former s.e.a.l.s, it was thought they were there to protect the ambassador. that's not the case. >> that's not the case, anderson. they are part of this protective security contractor force. these two...
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Sep 15, 2012
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and also ben wedeman in cairo and in washington fran townsend, she's a member of the cia external advisory committee. last month fran visited libya with his employer. let's start with you, arwa. you went to the scene at the u.s. consulate. you're also getting reports about a possible leak of information to the terrorists, the militants that carried out this attack. what have you learned? >> reporter: we are hearing details about a second attack that took place at a different location. this is coming from the spokesman of one of the battalions here that is part of the february 17th brigade. this is a brigade, according to this spokesman, that actually helped evacuate personnel from the location of the consulate to what was supposed to have been a safe house but a few hours after all of this took place, in the early hours of the morning, a unit of security personnel arrived at the benghazi airport from tripoli, these were americans tasked with evacuating. we are being told those who were hiding out at the safe house. as the convoy was approaching the safe house, they came under yet another i
and also ben wedeman in cairo and in washington fran townsend, she's a member of the cia external advisory committee. last month fran visited libya with his employer. let's start with you, arwa. you went to the scene at the u.s. consulate. you're also getting reports about a possible leak of information to the terrorists, the militants that carried out this attack. what have you learned? >> reporter: we are hearing details about a second attack that took place at a different location....
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Sep 11, 2012
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fran townsend is cnn's national security contributor and a member of the cia and homeland security external advisory boards. she joins me now. hi, fran. >> hi, carol. >> so what are your memories of that? and what do you think that we have learned? >> well, carol, look, i think like many americans, i had the television on that morning, and actually saws second plane slam into the world trade center. so, this day will never be the same. and, in fact, this morning coming to work i was looking at people walking to work just as they did on that day, it's a cool, you know, the air is cool, the sun is bright, the sky is clear. it's very reminiscent of that day. and i really think we've got to remember that for thousands of our fellow citizens, this day was a tragedy and their lives have been changed forever. and frankly the life of the nation. we are stronger. we are better. we have done a lot of things to improve the security of this country. and we owe a great deal of gratitude, frankly, to the military intelligence and law enforcement officials who have kept us and continue to keep us safe. >>
fran townsend is cnn's national security contributor and a member of the cia and homeland security external advisory boards. she joins me now. hi, fran. >> hi, carol. >> so what are your memories of that? and what do you think that we have learned? >> well, carol, look, i think like many americans, i had the television on that morning, and actually saws second plane slam into the world trade center. so, this day will never be the same. and, in fact, this morning coming to work...
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Sep 24, 2012
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let's dig deeper with our national security contributor, fran townsend. last month fran visited libya with her employer, mcandrews and forbes. fran, what do you make about this waiver for less security at this consulate in benghazi? is this a common practice? does this change something in the overall libya investigation? >> wolf, i don't think it really changes anything. certainly as part of the investigation now, we'll want to understand who made the recommendation. it would have gone -- the regional security officer would have been involved in what were the mitigation measures. if it couldn't meet the full standards, what were the rir requirements and how would they be met? the ambassador would have had to sign off on that waiver that went to washington. i think this turns out to be just part of what will be this ongoing investigation. >> you saw, i assume, "the new york times'" front page story today that u.s. intelligence in benghazi suffered a huge blow because immediately after the death of the ambassador and the three other americans, basically u.s
let's dig deeper with our national security contributor, fran townsend. last month fran visited libya with her employer, mcandrews and forbes. fran, what do you make about this waiver for less security at this consulate in benghazi? is this a common practice? does this change something in the overall libya investigation? >> wolf, i don't think it really changes anything. certainly as part of the investigation now, we'll want to understand who made the recommendation. it would have gone --...
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Sep 27, 2012
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let me just provide a little context with fran townsend. you're a national security contributor and a member of the cia external advisory committee and just last month you visited libya with your employer mcandrews and forbes. what did the law enforcement source tell you when it comes to the attack in benghazi? >> well, look the investigator sense from being on the ground has been from they said to me day one that this was a terror attack and i think that's consistent hearing from barbara starr and the secretary of defense. why they were so slow to say that, look. it may be as inokay wous as the fact they went out and put facts out they had to walk back from so it may be simpleilar as simple as they wanted to get more comfort they understood what happened. but i will tell you you know having as you pointed out been in the region, there is no question as of late august when i was there of the increasing presence and threat of extremism and the concern that that was to both libyan and american officials on the ground in tripoli. >> and also,
let me just provide a little context with fran townsend. you're a national security contributor and a member of the cia external advisory committee and just last month you visited libya with your employer mcandrews and forbes. what did the law enforcement source tell you when it comes to the attack in benghazi? >> well, look the investigator sense from being on the ground has been from they said to me day one that this was a terror attack and i think that's consistent hearing from barbara...
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Sep 12, 2012
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we want to bring in cnn contributor fran townsend on the phone in washington, d.c. fran worked in the white house in the bush administration on homeland security. and fran, you were talking yesterday a lot about the connection between what was going on in cairo, and libya. you were saying these protests represented really a tremendous amount of activity, too much to be a coincidence on september 11th. now on top of that, we have the assassination of the u.s. ambassador to libya. >> john, let me just step back for a second. i should tell you that i was with ambassador chris stevens not two weeks ago. i was in tripoli on a business trip. he was not only a friend, but i think to give our viewers some context, chris stevens had a particular sort of affinity for benghazi. he has been in d.c. in 2007 when i was in the white house and visited. he was there with me when i traveled to speak with gadhafi. and then he left libya. he went back at the height of the fighting, he was with the rebels in benghazi. before there was sort of an official consulate and establishment ther
we want to bring in cnn contributor fran townsend on the phone in washington, d.c. fran worked in the white house in the bush administration on homeland security. and fran, you were talking yesterday a lot about the connection between what was going on in cairo, and libya. you were saying these protests represented really a tremendous amount of activity, too much to be a coincidence on september 11th. now on top of that, we have the assassination of the u.s. ambassador to libya. >> john,...
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also on the phone is fran townsend, cnn national security contribute for. last week, fran visited libya. ian, you saw hundreds storming the u.s. embassy there in cairo. who are these protesters exactly? how widespread is this ageer? and what is the situation with the americans in that embassy right now since the ambassador live there is and a group of marines are there? >> reporter: the marines who are there are part of the diplomatic mission and it's one of the large els contingents of marines protecting a u.s. embassy in the world. but these protesters, they were predominantly islamists, people angry about a film that came out which they say depicts muhammad in a bad light, which they say insults the prophet. they say it calls him a womanizer, a homosexual, someone who molests children, things that muslims find offensive. so there was roughly a thousand people out there, we saw a handful of people storm the embassy perimeter. they tore down the american flag. security forces were off on the side. they did show up to separate the protesters in the embassy.
also on the phone is fran townsend, cnn national security contribute for. last week, fran visited libya. ian, you saw hundreds storming the u.s. embassy there in cairo. who are these protesters exactly? how widespread is this ageer? and what is the situation with the americans in that embassy right now since the ambassador live there is and a group of marines are there? >> reporter: the marines who are there are part of the diplomatic mission and it's one of the large els contingents of...
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Sep 24, 2012
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. >> fran townsend visited libya last month. mark whitaker is with us as well. executive vice president managing editor of cnn. let's talk a little bit about how this story developed. and some of what we now know about what was happening in libya comes from ambassador stevens' diary. why don't you walk me through, mark, how cnn got access to this diary. >> well, three days after the attack, arwa damon, our correspondent on the ground, gained access to the mission. which was, you know, had been evacuated. and found while she was there a journal. and, of course, she didn't know what it was. but then when she looked at it, it became clear that it was writings from ambassador stevens. and after she notified us here in atlanta and here in new york about it, we had discussions about what we should do with it. we immediately determined that this was his personal property. and that what we had to do was first approach his family and find out if they wanted it back. >> it became clear at some point there was some news value to what he had written in this journal. it was
. >> fran townsend visited libya last month. mark whitaker is with us as well. executive vice president managing editor of cnn. let's talk a little bit about how this story developed. and some of what we now know about what was happening in libya comes from ambassador stevens' diary. why don't you walk me through, mark, how cnn got access to this diary. >> well, three days after the attack, arwa damon, our correspondent on the ground, gained access to the mission. which was, you...
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Sep 27, 2012
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our national security contributor fran townsend just returned from libya. she was on cnn with anderson cooper last night. listen. >> what we found out today from senior law enforcement officials is that while the fbi has finally made it to tripoli. they've never made it to benghazi. >> they haven't been on the ground in benghazi? >> they have not. in fact, it was taking so long to get permission to get into tripoli, the fbi deployed closer. they have conducted interviews of those in labia at the time of the attack, but not been able to get -- they've gotten as far as tripoli, but never gotten to benghazi. they made a request that the crime scene be security. as we know from arwa damon's reporting and other public reporting, the state department, we don't know whether the state department put that request to the libyans and whether it was denied. what we know for sure is the crime scene was never secured. the senior law enforcement official i spoke to said, if we get there now, it's not clear it will be of any use to us. the third and really critical and ast
our national security contributor fran townsend just returned from libya. she was on cnn with anderson cooper last night. listen. >> what we found out today from senior law enforcement officials is that while the fbi has finally made it to tripoli. they've never made it to benghazi. >> they haven't been on the ground in benghazi? >> they have not. in fact, it was taking so long to get permission to get into tripoli, the fbi deployed closer. they have conducted interviews of...
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Sep 27, 2012
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our national security contributor fran townsend and our intelligence correspondent suzanne kelly, they are getting new details for us. standby. we'll go to them when we come back. [ laughing ] [ laughing ] [ laughing ] [ laughing ] ♪ with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine living your life with less chronic low back pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one non-narcotic pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not approved for children under 18. people taking maois or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported. signs include abdominal pain and yellowing skin or eyes. tell your doctor about all your medicines, including those
our national security contributor fran townsend and our intelligence correspondent suzanne kelly, they are getting new details for us. standby. we'll go to them when we come back. [ laughing ] [ laughing ] [ laughing ] [ laughing ] ♪ with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine living your life with less chronic low back pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one non-narcotic pill a day, every day, can help...
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Sep 21, 2012
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fran townsend told us the ambassador steven arrived for a meeting with her at a hotel in tripoli and had no security detail with him at all inside the hotel. you're hearing a very different account from state department officials that you're talking to. what are you hearing? >> wolf, we're hearing a couple of thing. first of all, the officials are saying just because the detail of ambassador stevens in tripoli wasn't visible doesn't mean it wasn't there. when we're talking about the consulate in tripoli -- in benghazi, excuse me, officials say that in the wake -- in the leadup to this 9/11 attack, and arwa just mentioned these previous attacks and including the attack on the consulate, the state department made increased enharassments to improve security on the compound, more barriers, more cameras, additional armed guards. in addition, ambassador stevens had two armed guards in addition to three others and several militias on the compound, and what officials are saying is listen, we were adding improvements to this security based on those previous attacks which weren't very large, b
fran townsend told us the ambassador steven arrived for a meeting with her at a hotel in tripoli and had no security detail with him at all inside the hotel. you're hearing a very different account from state department officials that you're talking to. what are you hearing? >> wolf, we're hearing a couple of thing. first of all, the officials are saying just because the detail of ambassador stevens in tripoli wasn't visible doesn't mean it wasn't there. when we're talking about the...
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Sep 29, 2012
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a senior law enforcement official, telling fran townsend, the fbi wanted the u.s. military to provide perimeter support in benghazi, protection in other words, but that request was not granted. fran is a former white house homeland security adviser, served in the george w. bush administration. sits on the cia external advisory panel and recently visited libya with mcandrews & forbes. and former fbi assistant director tom pointes who has extensive experience in investigating attacks overseas. so there was military protection to go into benghazi, why didn't they get it? >> the answer to the question is not really clear. so it's not unusual, when you want to set up a security perimeter, you may look to the host country. if the host country is unable or unwilling to provide it, we don't know what the answer to that is, you may ask if you think you need it for u.s. military support, but that's got to go through a process. it needs state department and nsc support, the u.s. military would have to make an assessment about how big a security package that would entail and l
a senior law enforcement official, telling fran townsend, the fbi wanted the u.s. military to provide perimeter support in benghazi, protection in other words, but that request was not granted. fran is a former white house homeland security adviser, served in the george w. bush administration. sits on the cia external advisory panel and recently visited libya with mcandrews & forbes. and former fbi assistant director tom pointes who has extensive experience in investigating attacks...
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Sep 25, 2012
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we've got a lot to talk about tonight with former homeland security advisor fran townsend. as we often mention, fran's a member of the external advisory committee, and recently visited libya with her employer. also joining us, former cia officer bob baer. i don't want to get into the journalistic details with you, but there's no doubt, what do you make of the fact that this consulate in benghazi three days after the attack apparently wasn't being guarded and journalists are wandering all over the place, and anybody could have been wandering all over the place. >> anderson, lost in the dispute over the journal is the fact that this calls into question the integrity of what is now an fbi investigation. one of the first thing law enforcement officers do when they begin an investigation is secure the crime scene. first and foremost, this is the consulate. now, they were going to have challenges to that. the fbi couldn't get in because of security conditions. u.s. personnel, nonessential personnel had been sent home. there were fewer to do that. but the fbi, frankly, once they o
we've got a lot to talk about tonight with former homeland security advisor fran townsend. as we often mention, fran's a member of the external advisory committee, and recently visited libya with her employer. also joining us, former cia officer bob baer. i don't want to get into the journalistic details with you, but there's no doubt, what do you make of the fact that this consulate in benghazi three days after the attack apparently wasn't being guarded and journalists are wandering all over...
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Sep 12, 2012
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and mona is a journalist on the phone from cairo and we have fran townsend, a cnn national security contributor and a member of the external advisory committee and she visited with libya with her employer, and i want to start with ian. you saw hundreds storming the u.s. embassy in cairo. who are these protesters? how widespread is the anger? what is the situation with the americans in the embassy? since a group of marines are there. >> well, anderson, the marines who are there are stations part of the diplomatic mission to secure the embassy. one of the largest contingents of marines protecting a u.s. embassy in the world. but these protesters were predominantly islamist. people who were any about a film that came out which they say depicts muhammad in a bad light, it calls him a womanizer, a homosexual, someone who molests children, things that muslims would find offensive. so there was roughly 1,000 people out there. going and we saw a handful of people storm the embassy, perimeter, they tore down the american flag. security forces on the site. they did show up to separate the protesters from
and mona is a journalist on the phone from cairo and we have fran townsend, a cnn national security contributor and a member of the external advisory committee and she visited with libya with her employer, and i want to start with ian. you saw hundreds storming the u.s. embassy in cairo. who are these protesters? how widespread is the anger? what is the situation with the americans in the embassy? since a group of marines are there. >> well, anderson, the marines who are there are...
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Sep 27, 2012
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fran townsend broke this story moments ago. also on the phone johnny ie zhan sackson and michael turner, republican from ohio. senator isakson, your reaction to this information? >> well, this thing mystifies me. we have an administration without a policy. looking the other way, referring to the tragic death of an ambassador as a bump in the road. i do not understand the continuance of the president to look the other way and not admit this was obviously a terrorist attack. i cannot believe the fbi is not on the ground yet an there's not enough cooperation to get them there. >> congressman turner f the fbi investigators have yet to step foot in benghazi, how is the investigation supposed to be credible. >> it can't b. this goes to the failure of this administration's policies in libya. we have to put it in context of a year ago. the president spent nearly a billion u.s. dollars with warships off the coast of libya attacking the moammar gadhafi regime for the purposes of transitioning libya without a stated or defined policy of w
fran townsend broke this story moments ago. also on the phone johnny ie zhan sackson and michael turner, republican from ohio. senator isakson, your reaction to this information? >> well, this thing mystifies me. we have an administration without a policy. looking the other way, referring to the tragic death of an ambassador as a bump in the road. i do not understand the continuance of the president to look the other way and not admit this was obviously a terrorist attack. i cannot...